New Land, New Game for Kurta : She Excels in Tennis After Defecting From Czechoslovakia

Nearly four years ago, Czechoslovakian Ingrid Kurta and her family walked for five hours through brush to cross the Yugoslavian border into Italy and seek asylum.

Leaving behind family and friends, the Kurtas were eventually placed in San Diego by an international refugee organization.

Ingrid Kurta abandoned a promising skiing career and replaced it with tennis. She had never played tennis before she came to the United States.

However, she has picked it up quickly enough to be the top-seeded player in the girls’ 16-under division tennis tournament of the California State Games. She won her first-round match Saturday, 6-3, 6-0, over Lisa Daly of Del Mar.

Not bad for someone who has played tennis for only 2 1/2 years.

“When we came here, we didn’t have anything to do,” Kurta said. “My dad said we were going to get fat. So we started hitting the ball.”

Kurta, 15, didn’t think she would ever be a good tennis player after a less than spectacular beginning.

“I didn’t know how to hold the racket,” she said. “The ball would hit my racket and it would fall out of my hands.”

By now, Kurta has figured out how to handle a tennis racket and most of her opponents.

Six months after she started to play tennis, Kurta won two beginners’ tournaments and was moved into advanced tournaments. This is her first year competing in the 16-under division, and she has won three tournaments.

Skiing, once her passion, is now a hobby. Her skiing is limited to family excursions to Mammoth.

She started skiing at 2 1/2 and competed in her first race at 4. By the time she was 9, she was one of the top age-group skiers in Czechoslovakia.

When the family was first placed in San Diego, Kurta’s father, Dusan, thought of moving to an area more suited for skiing, which he taught along with tennis in Czechoslovakia.

“I told them we would have to move to Colorado,” Dusan said. “But it was very expensive.”

So the Kurtas stayed in San Diego, Ingrid found a new career and her father became tennis coach at the River Valley Tennis Club. Ingrid, who will attend Grossmont High School, now receives constant advice from her father and coach.

“My goal is to be the best in the world,” Ingrid said. “It’s a long goal. One that will take lots of years.”

The trials of leaving Czechoslovakia seem far off on a day like Saturday, as the Kurtas stood in the sun and watched Ingrid play tennis at San Diego State.

Their decision to take a vacation in Yugoslavia and turn it into a new life in the United States was an easy one.

“If you want to do something, you have to do it,” Dusan said. “Not just think about it.”

It took Dusan, his wife and two children five hours of walking during the night to get into Italy. Once there, the Kurtas stayed in a refugee camp for five months.

“I wanted to give my kids a different life,” Dusan said. “I have very good life here because I have very good job. It’s impossible to have a business (in Czechoslovakia).”

Dusan said he was scared when he took his family across the border into Yugoslavia. He had heard stories of a family being shot while trying to cross into Austria.

Ingrid, 11 at the time, did not truly understand her family’s undertaking.

“I wasn’t scared,” she said. “I didn’t really know what was going on. We were just quiet.”

Ingrid may not have understood her family’s flight but, now that she is older, she has a grasp of what she wants and what it’s going to take to get there.

After her victory, she packed up her rackets and headed off.

“I’m going to practice,” she said. “I played terrible.”